Thursday, June 9, 2011

Morning Run = Another To-Enjoy Item Checked Off
I feel like I'm no a real roll with this To-Enjoy List Challenge. This morning I knocked another item off the list: Enjoy early morning runs. I guess I shouldn't say checked off completely, this list is more of an on-going list, kind of like laundry, only better. So I should say checked off for the week perhaps.

Last night was half hoping my friend would back out of our run date scheduled for 5:30 am today. Yawn. I've not been sleeping well and my legs are pretty heavy from spin, run, spin. But, he was gung-ho. Turned out to be a good thing. See, sometimes I need someone to keep me in check too!

So we meet at the Big Dam Bridge at 5:30. We did 4.2 miles then 3 x 1-minute hill repeats on the bridge. Yowzers. It was a great workout, and I'm so glad I got my lazy butt out of bed. I didn't see any bunny rabbits (Jessica), but I did see a young deer. I also got to enjoy watching the sun rise and great conversation along the way.

Crazy Dogs & Quesadillas
Since I was done with workouts for the day (gotta love that feeling), I was able to go home and spend some time in the kitchen. I really needed to make a trip to Target to be honest. I'm out of laundry detergent. Of course the perk there is that I have an excuse to not do laundry ;-)

But, I got a crazy, fun idea for dinner that I wanted to get working on. Plus, we have a four-legged guest for the next two nights. My friend and her hubby had to go out of town and their dog sitter arrangements fell through. So, for two nights Maddie and Heath have a sleep-over guest - 1-year old Beagle named Bella.

Since I wasn't sure how they were all going to do, I didn't want to leave them alone for too long. Bella was dropped off around 12:30 so getting home by 4 wasn't too much of a stretch for them to be alone. Plus, great excuse to avoid the Target errand right? Right. I will say that this doggy guest situation will be interesting. Bella may oust Maddie as the Queen of Crazy.

So, back to that dinner idea. I had pineapple already diced up from the Pineapple Salsa I made the other day. I had some poblano peppers I had picked up to stuff, but that's just sounding more like fall food not summer food right about now (must have something to do with high temps). So, I decided to do a Black Bean and Pineapple Quesadilla for dinner.

Directions:
Roast the poblano and red bell pepper until the skin blackens then put in bowl and cover to allow to cool. This will make it easier to remove the skins. Once cooled, peel of skins and dice.

In a saucepan, saute onion with garlic until begins to soften Add in beans and allow to heat through then slightly smash. Stir in remaining ingredients and spices up to the tortillas and allow to heat through for just a minute.

In non-stick skillet, slightly brown one side of the tortilla then flip. Sprinkle with Daiya and add bean and pineapple mixture to half the tortilla and fold the other half over. Brown on both sides.

Of course the photos don't do this justice. But, if you like pineapple and you like black beans, you'll love this. This wasn't too spicy at all. If you wanted it to have more spicy/sweet contrast, I would suggest adding in minced jalapenos. This filling would be fantastic as a filling for bell peppers or even over rice or couscous. I was very happy with how this turned out.